Hilbert schemes of 8 points (Q1047630)

This paper studies the Hilbert scheme of \(n\) points in affine \(d\) space, for \(n\) at most 8. In particular the authors focus on when this scheme is reducible. The main theorem classifies precisely when this happens, namely for \(n=8\) and \(d \geq 4\). In general the Hilbert scheme is a difficult and complicated object to study and it is well known that it may contain arbitrarily ``bad'' singularities [\textit{R.~Vakil}, Invent. Math. 164, No. 3, 569--590 (2006; Zbl 1095.14006)] (however Hartshorne did prove that it is always connected). The authors do a wonderful and thorough study of these particular Hilbert schemes. The paper has many explicit calculations and examples. The study is comprehensive and includes a characterization of which points are smoothable (i.e. belongs to the smoothable component of the Hilbert scheme). The authors finish with some interesting open questions which would nicely extend their work in this paper.